Songbringer is a top down action game, that wears its Zelda inspirations proudly on its sleeves, and throws in procedural generation to create diverse worlds for players to explore. Successfully funded by Kickstarter in 2015, Songbringer is developed by Wizard Fu, and features around 300 million unique worlds.
You play as Roc, aided by his trusty companion Jib, and they accidentally awaken an ancient evil which they then have to defeat. The plot seems pretty standard at first, but the characters and their backstories made me care about them more than I expected to. Roc is an adventurous and carefree sort, and eager to see what the universe has to offer. Jib was a boy with an interest in AI. Just before he dies, he transfers his consciousness into a skybot, and now accompanies Roc on his adventures.
Songbringer’s procedural generation is handled in an interesting way, with the player entering a five-letter word, called the “World Seed”, and the game then generates a world for the player. You can choose to return to previously explored worlds by entering in the same World Seed again, and this feels pretty neat. The combat feels pretty Zelda-like at the start, but shows greater depth and differences soon after. You have meditation abilities that restore health, you can eat items that induce a psychedelic state, and give you stat boosts. You can further add damage boosts and elemental effects to weapons using items procured during your travels.
Apart from the overworld, there are dungeons you can explore, with the objective of defeating the bosses within. This gives you new weapons, abilities, and extra health. The game’s combat has a great flow to it, and getting a hang of it immensely fun, challenging and satisfying. Exploring corners have their own rewards, and taking the time to see everything the game has to offer is worth the time and effort.
Songbringer also looks great, merging old school pixel art with excellent lighting and fluid combat animations to make everything look absolutely gorgeous. There’s ton of variety to the places, and I was constantly in awe of seeing all the action taking place on the screen.
I really enjoyed my time with Songbringer, and intend to return to some of my favorite worlds again and give the game another run.
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